Why is this interesting? - The Thanksgiving Edition

Noah here. For those living in the US, happy Thanksgiving. We’re going to take tomorrow off, but wanted to leave you plenty to read over the long weekend. To that end, we’ve asked WITI contributors and readers to submit links for this edition. Lots of good stuff to get through. Big thanks to everyone who added links and it is amazing to see how great (and interesting) this community is. We’ll probably be back to ask for more in December. (NRB)

Quick Links:

• “How Natural Wine Became a Symbol of Virtuous Consumption” by Rachel Monroe (MM)

• “Clean Climbing” - 1972 Chouinard Equipment catalog/manifesto (RPB)

• The Forgers Story (BWAGY)

• Ted Kooser's archive of American Life in Poetry seems the perfect rabbit hole to lose yourself down while lying on the couch in the early night after a long meal, hopefully with the quiet sounds of those you love moving through the shadows beyond the glow of your screen. (NC)

• After two decades of research and development, WA 38 lands this fall. It could disrupt an entire industry. WA 38 is an apple. (JSB)

• The Grandmaster Diet. I was not expecting a story about the eating habits of chess wizards to be so memorable, but I can't get it out of my head. (REX)

• Which average should I use? (KH)

• A New Yorker piece from 1950 on Hemingway visiting New York. Quite long but really good. (MK)

• Not a read, but a video: This 45-minute Royal Institution lecture on quantum physics by Philip Ball is amazingly accessible (as is his book Beyond Weird) and sent me deep into a quantum rabbit hole this time last year. (NRB) 

• Investigation into whether the Chinese government is responsible for a string of thefts of Chinese related art from museums around the world (ECA)

• Townshend and Daltrey, lions in winter. (JBR)

• This NYT piece by Ellen Barry is about the royal family of Oudh, but it is really about so much more—self-definition, the construction of community lore, the scars of colonialism, and the pangs of conscience that many good journalists feel. (PF)

• This Harper’s Bazaar piece is about the trials and tribulations of finding, quite literally, a safe space for NSFW: NYC’s sex-positive, pro-cannabis private club. Ya might wanna smoke while reading. (SAB)

• Fashion Forward: The Sounds Of Los Angeles’ Visionary ‘Les Sewing Sisters’ (COE[T])

• For one writer, becoming their true self only happened after they'd disappeared. (ACF)

• Jim Harrison’s Last Poems—of Love and the Earth—Are the Arguments We Should Be Having (NP)

• What’s One Thing You Learned at Business School that Blew Your Mind? (CPP)

• The world’s top economists just made the case for why we still need English majors (GOON)

• This NYT piece about Butterball’s turkey hotline helping America with its turkey illiteracy  In a world of algorithms and YouTube videos, this deep dive on the good old-fashioned hotline is oddly heart-warming (ASVV)

• The big business of unconscious bias (CW)

• 82 ways to live like Alejandro Jororowsky (CJN) 

• It's so easy for us to distract ourselves from our pain: Pour another drink, stream another show, scroll through another social media feed, or maybe do all three at the same time. But what if a fulfilling life requires that we sit alone welcoming our heartbreak. Maria Popova quotes Nietzsche in this article on Brain Pickings, "What if pleasure and displeasure were so tied together that whoever wanted to have as much as possible of one must also have as much as possible of the other -- that whoever wanted to learn to 'jubilate up to the heavens' would also have to be prepared for 'depression unto death'?” (CFG)

• A look at the private life of a private man. (TEK)

Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Friends (A-Z)

PS - Noah here. I’ve started a new company and we are looking for a sr. backend engineer to join the team. If you are one of those or know anyone who is great, please share. Dinner’s on me at a restaurant of your choice if you help us find someone.

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